Well, this has been a bit of a mess.
Apple on Monday confirmed user reports of an issue that caused music from personal collections in iTunes libraries to be deleted, stating it only affected a small number of users and that a fix was in the works.
The company offered the following comment on the issue:
“In an extremely small number of cases users have reported that music files saved on their computer were removed without their permission,” Apple said. “We’re taking these reports seriously as we know how important music is to our customers and our teams are focused on identifying the cause. We have not been able to reproduce this issue, however, we’re releasing an update to iTunes early next week which includes additional safeguards. If a user experiences this issue they should contact AppleCare.”
In the past week, a blog post published by Vellum’s Jake Pinkstone illustrated how Apple Music had deleted 122 GB of his personal music collection without his permission after he joined the service. The deletion occurred after Pinkstone had his music library scanned by Apple to make his collection available across his devices.
Pinkstone had apparently been told by an Apple Support Representative named “Amber” that the software was “functioning as intended.” When asked whether Apple Music was supposed to delete his personal music without his permission, Amber responded “yes.” Amber’s statement, however, was inaccurate according to Apple’s own support document.
While the causation of the bug is still unknown, as Apple has failed to reproduce the issue, the company’s statement suggests Apple has narrowed down the issue to iTunes rather than the Apple Music service. It’s unclear whether the fix will arrive with a minor or major iTunes update.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.